This is the house we bought in February 2010 (pictured here in April or May). We did the majority of the repairs ourselves in the middle of Michigan winter, without any heaters or bathroom.

We thought taking out this wall would be a cinch. Taking it down wasn't all that bad, except for dealing with all of the plaster, but figuring out where to re-rout plumbing, electrical, and heating duct was a real pain.

Robert standing in the kitchen wall.

View of the dining room from the living room.

Living room.

We gutted the bathroom.

This is a view from the bedroom where there used to be a very narrow closet. We tore down a wall in the bathroom to make it bigger and closed off this doorway to the old closet (where the tub now sits).

We tore the wall down to move the tub over and have a second window in the bathroom.
Moving the tub meant moving the tub drain.

This is the floor minus 5 layers of linoleum and plywood. Hundreds of tiny staples were removed and I only broke 2 staple pullers and got just a few blisters. We had to put in some replacement boards.